Beyond Years
by kittikat8531
Summary: She's been there for time immemorial, and now she's ready to go. Please R&R. Complete.


AN: This is actually a one-shot I wrote entirely in just the time since I came home from class. I haven't written much since school started this semester- largely due to a series of horrid headaches and almost nonexistent sleep- so I decided to wet my creative whistle on a Labyrinth fic since I haven't done one in some time. Hopefully after this I'll get back to my other works in progress before my little sister/beta kills me.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, and I certainly do not own Labyrinth.

Sarah had no idea how long she'd been trapped.

Time as she knew it had ceased to exist. Were it not for a little book in which she kept count of the days, she wouldn't have even the vaguest idea. Even that wasn't foolproof; over the endless years of the same day she occasionally forgot to update her log. After one particularly bad fight, she had failed to write in the journal for what she guessed was at least a month's worth of days. It was hard to tell, and Jareth certainly never told her.

After defeating the Labyrinth, Sarah had tried to move on with her life. She worked on her relationship with her stepmother and Toby. She finished high school and college, dedicating herself to her studies in her efforts to forget the fantasies of her youth. It worked, for a while- she stopped thinking of that world and its inhabitants as long as she was buried in her work. Finally rejecting the acting she had wanted for most of her childhood, the girl that ate the peach and forgot everything pursued a very normal and dull law degree. The logic puzzles from her adventure had left her more than prepared for mundane human arguments that followed simple rules. It was hardly a match for Fae trickery, after all.

The day _he_ reappeared had started out perfectly normally. She went into the office where she was a junior attorney. Work went smoothly, and Sarah was able to leave on time instead of having to deal with mountains of extra paperwork. Once she returned to her moderately sized but comfortable apartment, she put on water for a cup of tea before starting dinner. It was when a crystal rolled on the counter in front of her as she reached for a mug that everything went wrong.

The weighty earthenware cup slid from suddenly senseless fingers as _he_ materialized, though she was only seeing his reflection in the window. The sound of the mug shattering snapped her back, and she whipped around to face him.

"Hello, precious thing," he purred. "Have you missed me?"

Though she would deny it for many years to come, Sarah couldn't formulate any sort of coherent thought when faced with her old foe again. Time had not changed him at all; his light blond hair still wisped around his face. His eyes were the same mismatched blue. His wardrobe was unchanged as well, still archaic and somehow very striking. After a second's consideration, Sarah realized he was wearing the same thing he had during their confrontation in the tunnels just before he set the Cleaners on her.

Flustered, she groped for her old courage. "No. Should I have?"

The Goblin King tilted his head slightly to the side, forcibly reminding her of the owl she'd seen him become. "I would have thought the mundane nature of this world would have bored you to tears by now. Do you not think of us at all? Have you lost your love for my world, Sarah mine?"

The way he said her name was so haunting, so familiar, that it took a moment for Sarah to realize what else he'd said. "I'm not yours," she snapped. "Why are you here, Goblin King?"

Jareth smirked, drawing attention to the faint points of his canines. "Are you so sure about that, precious thing? I would have to disagree. Does it not seem strange to you that in all these years you have scarcely looked for a mate? You cannot find satisfaction in a mere human after your time in my world, in my _arms_."

The way he stressed the word brought to mind the masked ball, with the overwhelming depravity of it all. In a sense, though, he was right. Sarah felt no draw to the young men of her acquaintance, though she had been the subject of many of their dreams. She had sensed it and hadn't cared. Her cruelty was indeed the match of his. She took a moment to hope she hadn't hurt any of them too badly.

"That doesn't change my question. Why are you here?"

"Patience, precious thing. It is no fun at all to give away the game so soon."

"What game?" When his only response was another of his smirks, Sarah growled. "What game, Jareth?"

Without warning the king's hand shot out and tilted her head up so he could see her eyes. "I don't recall giving you permission to use my name."

The young woman jerked back defiantly. "When did I start needing your permission to do anything? You have no power over me. We already proved that."

The Fae shook his head and clucked softly, once again amused. "You believe that, do you? You conquered the paths of the Labyrinth only, precious. You did not conquer _me_. I cannot be mastered."

Sarah sniffed. "Piece of cake."

"Oh, really?" She flinched at the knife-sharp edge in his voice, but she held her ground. "That sounded like a challenge, Sarah. Are you prepared to prove it?"

"By what? Running the Labyrinth again?" She smiled darkly. "I beat that when I was fifteen, Jareth. I really don't think you can try that method a second time and actually expect to succeed. Didn't I make it in ten hours before?"

"I am not proposing that you run the Labyrinth. I have no desire to see you turn any more of my subjects traitor. No, your new challenge merits a more personal competition. It will be only you and I playing, precious. You will receive assistance from no one, and certainly not those friends of yours."

Sarah crossed her arms. "That seems… acceptable. So what's the challenge? I want to get rid of you for good."

"So cruel, my Sarah."

"I'm waiting."

Rather than answer, the world shifted around them and they were in a round chamber of stone. Glancing out the window, Sarah saw the Labyrinth sprawled out beneath them. They were in the Castle Beyond the Goblin City.

"Welcome back, precious thing."

She studied him, tense to make a break for it at any moment. "What am I doing here, Jareth? What's the challenge?"

"Find a way out," the king said simply. "The method is unimportant. If you can leave, you have won and I will never appear in your life again. If you cannot, you will stay here."

"And the time limit?"

"There is none."

"Rules?"

"None. As I said, the method is unimportant. You may use whatever means you have at your disposal."

Sarah smelled a trap, but she couldn't figure out where precisely it was. On the surface, his terms seemed- god forbid- generous. "And what exactly am I escaping from? This room? The castle? The Labyrinth? This whole world?"

"This suite. Depending on your preference, I can remain here should you choose to try extracting information from me, or I can await your surrender elsewhere."

"And you're so sure you'll win."

He inclined his head. "I am rather confident, yes."

Unsettled, Sarah began pacing the chamber. Jareth didn't move so much as an inch while she did, seemingly content to watch her. Once she'd circled the space three times, she looked over at him.

"Can I ask you something?"

"If I may as well."

She nodded. "Why now? I haven't seen or heard from anyone in this world for over ten years. What about today let you invade my life without so much as a warning?"

"There were warnings, though clearly you did not notice them. You were too caught up in human trivialities, I assume. My goblins have been following you regularly for more than a month. As for why I chose to act now, the reason is very simple. My preparations were complete and you were no longer too young to understand what I want."

"And what is it you want, Goblin King?"

"You have already had your question, precious thing. You do not get a second until I have asked my first."

"Fine," she grumbled, gesturing for him to continue. "I have a feeling you'll pester me until I answer anyway, so let's get this over with."

"Why are you accepting this so calmly?"

The young woman paused for a moment before replying. "Even though I apparently missed the warning signs, I guess I already knew I hadn't seen the last of you or this place. I never really believed the story was over just because I'd saved Toby. I'm not completely freaked out because I've already come to terms with the fact that I love this place. I want to be here." She glanced at him. "I just don't want to give up my world or do it on your terms."

"Oh, really."

"Yeah. Do I get to ask my second question now?"

"If you want."

"What are you after, Jareth?" His eyes narrowed when she said his name, but she pressed on. "What do you want from me?"

The Fae sighed and shook his head. "I had expected you to come to the proper conclusion some time ago, Sarah. If you think of our encounters you will know what I want."

Sarah frowned at him but closed her eyes to concentrate. "You showed up in the nursery and offered me my dreams. Then we were on the hill- you were awfully close, you know."

"Yes."

She shot a quick look at him before focusing again. "Then the tunnels and the ball. It's weird; both times I thought you were about to kiss me."

Still not seeing his point, the young woman opened her eyes to ask him. He was sitting on a sofa by the window, but his gaze met hers intensely, unflinchingly. Realization struck like a bolt of lightning and she turned to run.

"Sarah-"

"NO! I'm not staying here for that! Damn it, Jareth, what the hell kind of competition is this? If I lose, I'm some sort of sex slave?"

His arms snaked around her waist from behind just as she was about to reach one of the doors. "Stop, precious. I think you misunderstand."

"What's to misunderstand?" she yelped, struggling against him.

"'But what no one knew'," he whispered in her ear, "'was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl'."

She stopped moving so suddenly and completely it was like she had been frozen solid between breaths. "You're lying."

"I do not tell lies, Sarah."

"Then you're delusional or something! You don't- you can't love me!"

He tightened his grasp. "While it is true I have little experience with such subjects, I will not have you treat my emotions so flippantly. Perhaps my feelings for you have not yet achieved such a lofty height, but they are there nonetheless, and they are strong. You are all I think about."

"That's not love," she hissed through her teeth. "That's obsession."

Jareth shrugged. "Then win."

"You won't actually let me leave."

"I do not defy the rules of a game once they are set. If you succeed, you will have earned your freedom and I will not appear to you again." He released her and took a step back. "It is… _possible_… for you to achieve your goal, but the result would not be to your liking."

"So there's something you're not telling me," she accused as she quickly slid out of arm's reach. "This entire thing is a trick."

"Yes."

Sarah spun and yanked open the nearest door, but it revealed only a large closet. The next yielded a fully functioning, luxurious modern bathroom. A third led to a massive bedchamber while the fourth had a sort of indoor garden.

"No kitchen?" she asked sarcastically as she hurried to the last possible exit. The massive wooden door opened, but when she tried to leave she bounced back as though she had struck a wall instead of open air. Her face drained of color. "You cheated." 

"I never said I had not done my best to keep you in."

"So you don't even give me a fighting chance? Even the Labyrinth was better than this! It's not fair!"

"No," he agreed without rancor. "It isn't."

"My god, do you hate me so much that you'd go to such an extreme? The only way out is the window! Do you want me dead?"

He reached for her, but she darted out of reach. "No, I do not want you dead, but the window fulfills the requirement of the game. It is possible for you to leave. Whether you do so or not is entirely your decision."

"So I get to choose between being trapped here and killing myself."

"Yes."

"Is this what you call being generous? This is cruel! I have a life, Jareth! I want to live in my own world! I want to get married and have children someday! I don't want to be locked in a tower until I die!"

H disappeared instead of responding, knowing she wouldn't listen to anything he said in the midst of her rage and fear. Her ultimate fate would have to be discussed later, when she was less inclined to take her only way out.

Sarah recorded her days in the little journal because it was the only way she could keep herself from going insane. In rare bouts of legitimate kindness, the Goblin King would let her three friends visit, though briefly. When she asked if they knew a way for her to get back to the human world, they could only shrug. Very few inhabitants of the Faerie Realms had power enough to undo whatever Jareth had done, and even fewer had the authority. Most would think nothing of him keeping a human pet.

That particular piece of information sent the champion of the Labyrinth on a rampage as she hurled everything she could get her hands on at the wall or out the window. Once her destructive energy ran out, she collapsed on her bed in tears. When she woke up the next morning, everything was exactly as it had been before. That was the first thing that struck her as not quite right.

Jareth was the only person she saw regularly, though he was often subjected to the sharp edge of her temper. If it troubled him, he gave no sign of it. To the contrary, he often seemed amused by her anger. Sarah wondered out loud if she could leave by pushing _him_ out the window, to which he had laughed.

In the end, it was Sarah herself who broached the topic Jareth had tactfully avoided that first night. Several months had passed. They were eating dinner together in a companionable fashion, though Jareth's twisted sense of humor had resulted in peach cobbler for dessert. Sarah had cheerfully suggested where exactly he could put it.

With a sigh, she set down her fork. "Jareth, I'm not changing at all. What did you do?"

He paused before slowly laying his down as well. "How long ago did you notice?"

"Three or four days. This has something to do with that secret you've been keeping the whole time, doesn't it?"

The Goblin King nodded. "Did you never wonder about the nature of the barrier keeping you in this suite?"

"Of course; dozens of times." Sarah got to her feet and wandered over to the balcony he had replaced the window with at her request. "I could never figure it out. If it was just a simple barrier, my developing magic should have been able to undo it by now."

"You tried?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'm not as angry as I was at first, but I still don't like being trapped. I probably would have stayed if you had just asked me."

"I considered that, but it was not a good option."

"Why?"

"You are mortal, and subject to the failings of your kind. Even in this world, your life would be finite. My enemies would use you against me if they could. You are safe here. You will not sicken; you will not age."

"And I won't die."

"Yes."

The young woman shook her head. "You still haven't told me what you did."

"Time has stopped here. The days you see passing by are only illusions of my making, to keep you as comfortable as possible."

"So I'll never change. Nothing here will unless you allow it."

He nodded a second time. "This was the only way to keep you."

"That still makes it sound like you're obsessed with me." Sarah managed a humorless laugh. "I should've known better than to agree to your challenge. Fae don't give up on something they see as theirs, and right now I'm just a piece of property to you."

"You have never been _just_ anything, precious." He joined her on the balcony, caressing her cheek. "You are the only person I love in any of the worlds. You have become my world, for without you I would surely cease to exist."

"You don't mean that," she whispered as she turned away.

"_Sarah_." Shocked by his tone, she looked at him again. "Do not defy me."

Her lips quirked slightly. "Going back to the old lines, Goblin King?"

"You thought I would kiss you when I said it the first time. Do you still want me to?"

"I'm not answering something like that in this situation, Jareth. I won't be your toy."

"I am not looking for a toy," the Fae said darkly, tilting her chin up with one gloved hand. "You are so much more than that, Sarah Williams. And you are _mine_."

It was impossible to tell through the enchanted barrier between her and the rest of the world, but Sarah knew things weren't right. Her friends' visits had become rarer and rarer before ending altogether, and when she asked Jareth looked away rather than telling her the truth. His silence spoke far louder anyway, and she knew they had died. She could only hope it hadn't been painful or drawn out.

The Goblin King himself vanished for days on end before returning without an explanation, silencing her demands for information with sweet kisses until she forgot her questions and he left once more. It infuriated her that he could or would do such a thing, but her anger with him never lasted long after how long they'd spent together.

Finally, the day came when he just didn't leave again. That cemented her belief that something had gone horribly wrong in the rest of the Faerie Realms. If Jareth no longer felt the need to go about the day to day business of being king, it was because there was no one left to rule. No one but her.

It had taken time, but Sarah had fallen in love with her captor. Oh, she knew what other humans would think- it was only Stockholm's Syndrome; she'd get over it with enough time and therapy- but they were wrong. The possibility had been there from the moment they met, and getting to know the man behind the kingly persona had proved her undoing. When he was not acting the Goblin King, Jareth was ultimately a friendly and generous person.

_Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave…_

Remembering those words from a long lost past sent a shiver up her spine. She had never realized how true they would be, but the Fae she spent all her time with had become the center of her universe even beyond being the only other living being she ever saw. He was her best friend and rival, her confidant and lover. Were it not for the way they argued and the fact that he would never release her, their relationship was ideal.

Her journal had lain forgotten for countless years at this point, her time more interestingly spent with Jareth, but she slipped out of bed and picked it up. He slept on despite a soft moan when he reached out and found her gone. He hardly had to fret, after all; she couldn't leave. She slipped a robe on as she contemplated her last entry, from the day Jareth had simply never left.

_I lost accurate count a long time ago, but I know it's been at least a few hundred years in the outside world since I was brought here. Jareth finally told me today that Hoggle and the others wouldn't be coming back, though he didn't say why. Even without it, I knew they were dead, that they'd died some time ago and he hadn't said anything. It makes me afraid that there's a war or some sort of catastrophe going on. I hate feeling like there's nothing I can do to help the people I care about. Jareth is all I have left. _

"And I'm all he has," Sarah said out loud.

Her soft words were enough to rouse her sleeping lover, who sat up and glanced her way. "Is something wrong, precious?"

She shook her head, still thinking. "Go back to sleep."

"Not without you. Come here."

The young woman glided back to his side, and he automatically tugged her into his arms and back into the bed, keeping her close so she couldn't slip off without him noticing a second time. She sighed but relaxed against him.

She was supposed to be dead. She knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt- after all, a mere human could never hope to outlive the enduring Fair Folk. Jareth had kept her along far beyond her time, to the point that she _felt_ old and worn despite not looking any different than she had thousands of years before. She needed that final oblivion before the Goblin King destroyed the natural order entirely.

She just had to believe there was still something out there that could survive.

Sarah felt Jareth frown against the back of her neck and knew he had woken up again. He was the first to say something. "You're tense, Sarah mine. Is something bothering you?"

"If I asked you something, would you be honest with me?"

He sat up and stared at her. "I have always been honest, precious thing. Why do you ask?"

"If I asked you for a question and a favor, would you?"

"The question, yes. I will tell you whatever you would like to know. As for the favor, I make no guarantees."

She nodded. "What happened to the rest of the world? How long have I been here?"

"That is two questions, Sarah."

"Please."

The Fae sighed. "Very well. You have been here for nearly five thousand years as time runs in your world."

"So everyone I knew is gone. Toby, my dad…"

"Yes. As for the fate of this world, it is most unfortunate. I do not think you will want to hear it."

"Just tell me."

"If you insist," he said after a long pause. "The magic of this world died out. There was not enough belief coming from the human world to sustain the Fae any longer. It began slowly- the small and weak faded away. Eventually the disbelief became a sort of infection in the very fabric of the realm, and it consumed everything. Even the Labyrinth is gone. This is all that remains."

"And the human world?"

"They hover on the brink of destruction. The planet has not survived man's rampage across its lands, and the few remaining governments are perpetually at each other's throats. I expect them to come to blows at any time, and once they do the few of your kind that is left will die. There was talk of space missions to search out an inhabitable world, but they failed. This planet and the dimensions attached to it are ultimately doomed."

"How did you survive?"

"Unlike others of my kind, I used my power to my advantage. I still have one mortal that believes in me wholeheartedly, and my natural strength far exceeds that of your friends. As long as you are alive, I will continue. And you, my precious Sarah, are eternal."

She slid out of his grasp and walked to the balcony as he followed, mild confusion etched into his exotic features. "Please tell me you'll give me what I'm going to ask for."

"Within reason."

"Let me go."

The first night she had returned to his world, it had been she who had frozen, but now it was the Goblin King that stood petrified. His eyes were wide with fear, panic, and unfathomable love. She struggled to keep herself strong.

"What? No. Precious, you don't know what you're saying."

"Yes, I do. The worlds are coming apart, Jareth. You've torn reality for my sake. I'm _old_. I should have had children and been a grandmother and worn those ridiculous old lady glasses and clothes. I shouldn't look like I'm still in my twenties. I'm not eternal. I'm mortal, and it's time for me to die a mortal death."

"Never," he swore, gathering her close and pulling her back toward their room. "I won't let it happen. You lost; you have to stay with me."

"I never said I'd given up. The game hasn't ended yet."

He glanced at the balcony railing then back at her, expression filled with terror. "Sarah, no. I can't lose you, precious thing."

"We've had our forever, Jareth. It's time for me to go."

The young woman slipped out of his grasp and stepped forward without hesitation until she was at the edge of the elaborate stonework, inches from her single exit. She took a deep breath and glanced back at her king, who seemed rooted to the floor.

"I love you," she whispered, knowing he'd hear, finally accepting that he felt the same. Facing the open air, she spread her arms. And jumped.

She heard his cry of pain as the world fell down. Then, nothing.

AN: So that's it. Please let me know what you thought. And yes, I realize it was kind of sad. I was a bit down this afternoon. Thanks for reading. Till next time (hopefully)!


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